Recent Posts

Month: June 2014

You’ve done a ton of work to get your e-commerce site up and running. Now the last thing you want to do is sabotage your progress with inadvertent SEO killers.

Unfortunately, having a good looking site and excellent products isn’t enough to succeed on the internet. Business SEO matters a great deal, as does some basic knowledge on how search engines find, sort, and categorize things.

Here are a few tips that can keep your site at optimal searchability.

Pay Attention to Those Products!

Product descriptions are one of the main culprits to watch out for to keep your business SEO optimized.

Provide product descriptions: Even though product pages are far down in your site index, make sure you have a product description there. Photos aren’t enough, search engines need a certain number of words in order to rank your product well.

Unique product descriptions: What’s wrong with using the description that the manufacturer wrote? Well, that’s duplicate content. Search engines don’t like that, they like unique. Spend the few dollars necessary to get unique product descriptions. If you can’t for some reason, at least set no-index Meta tags to keep the search engines from indexing those pages without original content.

Leverage public opinion: Set your site up to encourage customer comments. They are 100% original (happy search engines), 100% free (happy web owners), and 100% trust building (happy customers).

Title Tags and URLs

When it comes to title tags and URLs, the business SEO need for uniqueness continues.

Make search details such as brand name, descriptive words, even product numbers, are all part of your title tag.

Keep your title tags unique. Using the manufacturer’s product title tag will be seen by search engines as duplicate content and given a poor search ranking.

Ensure that your URLs are keyword rich and relevant to your products. A URL that makes sense to your customers makes for high usability, and high usability creates….

Sorting Repetitive Content

Between overlapping search terms and comprehensive product descriptions, it is easy to end up with repetitive content on a large e-commerce site. Smart business SEO suggests it may behoove you to assign priority for the search engines by utilizing canonical tags. This designates certain pages as the page you want recognized in a search.

While Google offers no guarantee, they do attempt to respect noted canonical pages.

Bringing it all Together

Juggling all these considerations can be quite a lot of work! Certainly keep these things in mind as you continue to add product and blog content to your e-commerce site, but also consider running a business SEO campaign.

At Coalition Technologies, we run just such campaigns for our clients. And as a result, their e-commerce sites are streamlined to perfection and experience a significant rise in search rankings. We really do hit home runs for our clients every day.

If you would like to check out the possibility of putting our expertise to work for you, contact us at 1-888-652-0637 for a free quote.

In today’s busy web world, a surprising number of developers are self-taught. Maybe they want to build their idea and don’t have money to hire someone. Maybe they just like knowing how to do things themselves. Whatever the motivation, in they plunge, head first. Patiently figuring out what works and what doesn’t with hours of reading and careful learning.

Three cheers for self-teaching! ‘Round Coalition Technologies, we think that’s the bomb!

Now, all you self-teachers, how can you speed up your learning curve? Everyone has one, right? Even the cleverest among us isn’t born an ecommerce website development genius.

Here are some good ideas.

Get all Independent

Throughout your career as a developer, you will build a bajillion websites (that’s a rough number, you understand…). Start by building and hosting your own, and just see how fast you learn! Get a good domain name through a registrar that does not offer hosting, and go for it.

Building without an auto-platform will give you a good challenge and…once you get into the project a bit…show you how clean and simple the building process really is.

Take the Road Less Traveled

Learn and use domain specific language – rather than working off an already built framework. You’ll find that while the project will start slower, in the end, it will be lighter and more workable. And ultimately, you’ll be able to build your own applications when the fancy takes you. Pretty cool stuff!

Go a Layer Deeper

Underneath DSLs like Ruby and Python is good ol’ C. Intimidating as it may seem at first, you really should learn it. Your future in ecommerce website development relies on you knowing as much about computers from the bones up as possible. And C is about as close to the bones as you can get. Learn that, and your knowledge foundation is firm and fully operative.

Collaborate and Learn

Working together with other programmers will make you better in three ways:

If you are working with someone who is better than you, you’ll learn a ton;

If you are working with someone less advanced than you, you’ll teach them. And teaching is a great way to get better; and

No matter what, working next to another creative mind will spark, plant and germinate ideas.

Pride!

At Coalition Technologies, we are inordinately proud of our ecommerce website development team. With years of creative experience and a plethora of cool applications and sites in our repertoire, we make a great partner.

We can, of course, run an entire ecommerce website development project for you. But if you are like us (and we love it when you are), you may well just need a little boost, a couple ideas, or a bit of knowledge. Consider us an option for step-by-step or collaborative help if you need it.

Our goal is always to keep our work comfortably within your budget. And no matter what level of help or advice you are looking for, our quotes are free.

Contact us today at 1-888-652-0637 to go over your ecommerce website development project or issue and find out how we can help.

Picking a font for your logo can be an almost excruciating process! As if colors and designs weren’t enough, now you have to worry about the shape of the letters in your logo? Why, oh why do people have to be such complex, demanding creatures?

Let’s get all psychological for a few minutes.

Here’s the Bottom Line

When someone looks at your logo, font and all, you want them to feel your brand. So what is it that you want them to feel?

Let’s think about a couple of examples:

YouTube: There’s You all by itself. Independent. Then there’s Tube, enclosed in a screen (anyone remember the phrase boob tube?). Put together, you get a channel about you.

And the font? Clean and approachable, since the videos here can be created and produced by anybody.

Caterpillar: One word with a pile of dirt in front of it, yet recognizable anytime, anywhere. The pile of dirt references what they do, and the bold, capitalized font makes it feel like, with determination, you could make that pile of dirt yourself. All you need is a cool machine.

Both of these companies want the viewer to feel that they could get things done using their product. Not too simple of a font, not too formal, just straight forward accomplishment.

Would you hire a law firm that used a hand-written font all over their letterhead and business cards? Or an after-school kindergarten program with a sign printed in gothic calligraphy?

Not likely. Script Matters.

What do you want your audience to feel when they look at your logo?

What a Los Angeles Logo Designer can do for You

Large companies, like Google and Boeing, have huge marketing departments and advertising. For one of the big guys, developing or changing a logo is easy, considering they have everything they need in house.

What about you? You need the same research data and market knowledge to make informed decisions on logo font that multi-million dollar companies need. Except your budget likely reaches red much quicker than theirs.

Have you talked to a Los Angeles logo designer?

Web designers work in online marketing, therefore part of their job is to be up to date on all the latest market results and psychology. When you hire a Los Angeles logo designer, you get all the knowledge you need to make a sound logo font decision.

Take a moment to flip through our portfolio at Coalition Technologies. Then read our customer reviews. We are proud of our design team and the astounding results we have gotten for our clientele.

As far as budget goes, we keep our prices such that we remain accessible to businesses of all sizes.

Talk to Coalition Technologies’ Los Angeles logo designer to see what we can offer you. Contact us today at 1-888-652-0637 for a free quote on your logo project.

Defining your Los Angeles corporate identity is a pivotal cornerstone to building your business. Online or off, you need an image, a brand, a logo…an entire identity that:

feels true;

is memorable; and

can be used in multiple advertising and publicity methods.

Where do you start? Start with yourself.

What do YOU Think of You?

Sit down with all of your founding documents. The ones from your garage band days when you were dreaming about how you would make a mark, fill a need and change the world. Read them over, both by yourself and with other members of the corporation.

Do they still feel right, or have you developed in a different direction? Will those original ideas and ideals get you to the future you want? If not, re-calibrate.

What do OTHERS Think of You?

Now get an outside perspective. This is the business equivalent of getting a friend’s opinion on your outfit. You’ve put together something you think is good, but what does someone else think? Does your business plan make your butt look big? Or is it a flattering fit?

Take polls, do interviews, compile outside opinions and look for discrepancies. If your intended message isn’t being received, change it.

Learn From the Open Market

It’s likely you’ve seen a company (or six) similar to yours. Go find those companies and study their identity and branding. How do they utilize it? Is their identity clear? How do their customers respond to them?

Take note of what their identity looks like in action. Harvest the ideas you like and use them shamelessly.

What are Your Goals?

Undoubtedly, your long-term goal is to get rich and be admired from the far reaches of the universe. But there are likely a couple of steps to take between where you are now, and that final, grand position.

Develop short- and medium-term goals for the future that are based on multiple perspectives. You need a newbie, as well as a founding members’ thoughts. You need entry level as well highest level administration. The value to be found in diverse points of view is immeasurable!

Brainstorm and Create

Once you’ve worked out the kinks in your image and goals, start brainstorming to find ways to manifest your Los Angeles corporate identity. Develop colors, images and fonts that embody who you are as a company and will reach your intended customer base.

Then get busy deploying your image both online and off.

Check and Re-check

Be sure you come back later and re-evaluate. Make sure your Los Angeles corporate identity is still in alignment with your company goals and customers alike.

It’s Hard!

Developing a Los Angeles corporate identity can be difficult.

At Coalition Technologies, we specialize in identity development. We can help you pinpoint the exact words and images that bring your desired brand to life.

With our impressive portfolio and 99% customer satisfaction rating, we are sure we can provide the creative genius you need to develop a business identity you can succeed with.

What are some of the most recognizable business logos in the world? McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Pepsi, Starbucks, Apple, Google, Lexus… There are a lot, and anyone who knows anything about advertising can tell you that being immediately recognizable is a business gold mine!

Whether you were around for the beginning of a business or not, usually a company’s logo has its roots in early meaning.

McDonald’s buildings used to have golden arches built right into the buildings.

BMW took over Rapp Motors and kept their familiar round badge with a thick black band around it, and replaced the inside design with the blue and Bavarian flag.

Pepsi wanted to be patriotic during WWII, so they added a swoosh of U.S. flag colors to their scripted name.

Combining name and symbols or image details make for a cohesive logo. And that’s exactly what Ikea is working on.

The Foundation of a Business

Ikea is known for providing attractive furniture that the average person can not only afford, but can take home and put together themselves. Assembly is typically required to get your new desk/bed/cabinets from the flat box that they came in to a finished product you can use.

The new proposed logo gleans those concepts of creativity, do-it-yourself-ness and building and presents the letters I-k-e-a piled up loosely in a 3-D image that looks like they are one assembly step away from building the word Ikea.

Taking the building aspect a step further is the business card concept. One-fourth of the logo is printed on the back of each card, so when four employees with all four card colors (red, yellow, green and blue) come together, they make the entire logo.

What’s Yours?

Your business foundation. Your image. What is it? What is your company’s best trait?

Steadiness

Creativity

Power

Independence

Knowledge

Boil your business foundation down to one or two potent words to help you design a logo.

Oh the Cleverness of Us!

At Coalition Technologies, we are a Los Angeles logo maker with a large portfolio of creative design projects under our belt and 184 years of combined experience. We are extremely proud of our work and our clients, whether those clients are small start-up companies or Fortune 500 giants.

If you are designing or revamping your logo, talk to our Los Angeles logo maker department. We think you’ll be just impressed with the prices that we strive to make affordable for everyone, as you are with our creative genius and industry knowledge.

Whether you have no idea where to start or a rough logo design already in the works, we can help. We’ll take a look at your project and give you a free quote for your logo’s completion.

Come be part of our success. Call us today at 1-888-652-0637 to set up your free quote.

Pop-up shops can serve up a brilliant splash of color in just about any company’s crisp, black and white business plan. They are a great way to present new tools or widgets to your customer base and kick start your product line.

Shopify recently ran a 4-day pop-up shop that revolutionized typical methods and goals of these advertising ventures. Whether you are a Shopify customer or not, the marketing brilliance put into this project is something we can all learn from.

What is a Pop-up Shop Anyway?

When a company wants to introduce itself or its products to an area, a temporary, or pop-up shop is one way to do it. The shop may last a weekend or a whole season, and be a small or large display. Whatever its duration or size, the shop will be temporary.

If you have a brick and mortar store, a pop-up shop can widen your audience and expand your network of business contacts. If you are exclusively online, it serves to promote your business in the area where the pop-up shop is located.

Considering that thousands of shoppers can see your pop-up shop in a single weekend, the sheer exposure and advertising potential are sky high.

What did Shopify do Differently?

Typically, the goal of a pop-up store is to sell. Completely understandable, right? We didn’t go through all this preparation just to show up and look good. But Shopify upped the game at their pop-up shop in Toronto when they shifted the focus away from sales and instead toward education:

Training on how to set up their products

Education on complementary skills aimed at helping their customers thrive

Workshops from partners whose products and services enhance Shopify’s own

In a word, the goal was success. Their customers’ success. And that simple, market-accurate goal resulted in tons of accolades and requests for them to do it again.

Cool Idea! May I Borrow It?

Yes, please do. At its heart, this is what marketing is: meeting your audience’s needs. You meet those needs and your bottom line will take care of itself many times over.

Do you use Shopify? Is your Shopify SEO honed to be as awesome as it can be?

At Coalition Technologies, we pride ourselves on providing you with a good SEO campaign. If you’ve already created your business and chosen Shopify as your business platform, that’s perfect. Now give it to us and let us do what we do best. We can run a Shopify SEO campaign for you that will polish your site and bring you the attention and customers you’ve worked for.

You are at the top of your game in developing your product line. We are the top of ours running a Shopify SEO campaign for you.

Call us today at 1-888-652-0637 to set up a free quote and let us put our skills to work for you.

So you have a brilliant business idea and you’re ready to put it out there for the world to appreciate, huh? Good job! The world can always use brilliant ideas.

Now, about setting up your webstore: how prepared is your bank account for the job ahead? It’s time to do a quick rundown of where the start-up costs of your webstore will come from.

There’s no Such Thing as a Free Lunch

Or a free business license. Or free website hosting. Or a free unique SSL certificate… Not trying to be depressing here, just trying to present a little reality check. Here are some things to think about.

Website basics:

Logo and web banner design

Custom fonts and button styles

Navigational design

Are you able to generate these yourself? There are some decent template styles out there, but if you are serious about branding, then your webstore’s look needs to be fresh, unique, memorable and completely true to your goals.

Business performance:

Organization platform

Social media software

Accepting payments

Shopping analytics

Do you have the information you need to make good decisions on these topics? If not, how will you get educated so you can choose?

Odds ‘n ends:

Private SSL Certificate

Blogging/newsletters

Customer service tools

Product photos and descriptions

Nickel and dime details abound! Just about the time you believe you’ve thought of everything, some odd unknown will raise its head. Just about the time you settle into your monthly costs, your webstore will improve its performance, and you will suddenly need more bandwidth space.

Congratulations on succeeding!

Man That’s a Good Looking Site! Was it Expensive?

Many webstore owners purchase an all-in-one ecommerce platform like Volusion, which comes at very reasonable monthly rates. That’s an excellent starting point. But by the time you stack on multiple services, your ongoing costs can soar into the uncomfortable range pretty easily.

Consider hiring a professional to assess your needs and provide recommendations. Getting sound advice from someone who has built many successful websites can be incredibly helpful!

Focus on Revenue

As you juggle services and numbers, keep in mind that what you spend on your webstore isn’t only out-go, it is part of the process of building income.

At Coalition Technologies, our specialty is building websites and webstores that perform exactly how you need them to. If you use Volusion as your e-commerce platform, we can run a Volusion SEO campaign to make sure your products and publications are reaching the people who are searching for them.

Ask us to assess your business and provide you with a free quote for the products and services we think would serve you best. From front end identity design to website development to landing page SEO to reputation management (yes, that’s an actual thing), we are experts in making your business shine.

Call us today at 1-888-652-0637, for a free quote, and be prepared to be amazed.